an icepick through the keyhole

As an added note, B5 was a more realistic political and cultural portrayal of the future. The alien races were shown to be flawed, but the flaw was not in their inherent natures, but the flaw in all of the races was the fact that they were monolithic. Humanity's greatest strength, as JMS pointed out, was the ability to build communities, and the ultimate lesson of the Interstellar Alliance is that in diversity there is strength - and the Alliance was no namby pamby single galactic government Federation but a real confederation of allies. My favorite moment in the first season had to be the end of "Parliament of Dreams" when Sinclair introduces the ambassadors to Earth's "dominant belief system". A wonderful, wonderful moment.

I also loved the fact that Ivanova was a Jew, and that later on there were meetings of various religious leaders, including a Muslim and a Baptist in addition to Brother Theo's Catholic monks.

The other show I like because it was so rich was Farscape. The aliens were so alien and so individualistic, that it felt real, and the universe in consequence felt so much bigger and expansive.